Baseball: Seekonk squeezes by Apponequet in seventh

MATTAPOISETT — In a pitchers' duel at the top of the South Coast Conference, Old Rochester ace Andrew Ryan blinked first.

BILL ABRAMSON

MATTAPOISETT — In a pitchers' duel at the top of the South Coast Conference, Old Rochester ace Andrew Ryan blinked first.

Matching zeroes with Seekonk southpaw Jesse Archambault through six innings, Ryan came up short in a 10-pitch battle with Jesse's brother, Jarrett Archambault, in the seventh inning. The Seekonk cleanup hitter roped a double to right field, scoring Jake Robitaille for a 1-0 victory over the first-place Bulldogs.

Old Rochester holds the top spot in the conference with an 11-3 record, one game ahead of Seekonk and Dighton-Rehoboth. ORR has games Monday at Bourne and Tuesday at Apponequet. One victory would assure a share of the championship and two would claim the title outright. Seekonk and Dighton-Rehoboth have a game to play, with the loser being eliminated from the chase.

Statistically, Ryan won the battle, but lost the war. He gave up five hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out a season-high 14 batters in his seven innings. Through six innings, he faced one batter more than the minimum.

Archambault was almost as good with four hits allowed, three walks and nine strikeouts.

"I had all three of my pitches working for me today," Ryan said. "The velocity was up on my fastball and I felt I could really dial it up when I had to. I threw 114 pitches and I was getting a little tired toward the end, but I had to make a pitch on the 3-and-2 count. It was a fastball on the outside at his knees, and he just put the bat on the ball. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have thrown another curve ball."

Robitaille led off the seventh by dumping a single into short right-center. He stole second, but Jarrett Archambault worked the count full and fouled off four pitches before doubling.

An inning earlier, Ryan was in a real hole. Unable to generate offense, Seekonk's Pat Holden bunted, who beat Ryan's throw to first. Ryan, who had picked off Seekonk's first two baserunners (one at second base), tried to get Holden leaning at first, but threw wild, enabling the runner to take second. When catcher John Brault tried to pick him off there, he slipped on the throw and the ball went into left field, moving Hanson to third with none out.

Ryan settled down and struck out Nick Foley, Angelo Sabatini and Chris Pereira to keep the game scoreless.

"Andrew pitched well and showed that mental toughness on the mound, especially in the sixth inning," Old Rochester coach Steve Carvalho said. "That was a good, hard-fought South Coast Conference baseball game. Archambault is one of the best pitchers in the league."

He wasn't any better than in the seventh inning. Bryant Salkino led off with a single to right and, after a strikeout, Ryan Plunkett worked a walk. Brault lined to left and Austin Salkino hit a shot down the right-field line that brought home the tying run, but in the excitement of the play, the umpire's foul call went unheard. Salkino was out on a close play at first on his grounder to second base, ending the game.

COACH CARVALHO: "We control things. "» We've played great ball for the last month and a half, winning 12 of our last 13 games (entering this game). We've done a great job. It would be nice to get a bounce or two today. "» We hit some line drives, but we hit them right at people."

OLD ROCHESTER STATS: Bryant Salkino had two of the Bulldogs' four hits, and Keirnan Besse and Plunkett had the others.

NOTES: Old Rochester didn't have a runner reach third base in the game. "» With five days off until the next game, Carvalho must choose between Plunkett and Ryan for the starting nod in the two games. Right now, it appears that Plunkett will pitch vs. Bourne and Ryan against Apponequet.